SLIPPERY ROCK — Twenty-four Nanjing University students have traveled halfway around the world to begin 14 weeks of hospitality, event management and tourism study at Slippery Rock University.

The Chinese students arrived Feb. 10 and will be on campus until May 9.

Bruce Boliver, chairman of SRU’s hospitality, event management and tourism department, is proud of the program.

It was first offered last fall semester to 10 Nanjing students under an exchange agreement worked out between the two universities.

“It is great to see the program size more than double. It appears the students who participated in the first class went back and told their friends and fellow students about our program and how much they enjoyed it,” Boliver said.

As part of their SRU studies, the 24 students will first be involved in an intensive, three-week English-as-a-second-language program to help polish their English speaking and understanding skills.

Boliver said the students would be immersed in courses related to hospitality and tourism.

“In the previous program, we only had 10 students, so they were mainstreamed with our traditional SRU students, but with 24, we will be able to offer classes to the students as a cohort,” Boliver said. “We are currently pairing each of the students with a junior or senior SRU mentor within our hospitality, event management and tourism program.”

Other SRU courses will cover such topics as event/meeting planning, tourism, resort recreation management, hotel/hospitality management and commercial recreation. There will also be class sessions in running specialty camps and community recreation concepts.

Boliver said the students would visit a number of hospitality and tourism-related sites such as the Nemacolin Woodlands Resort in Farmington, Fayette County.

The group also will be making use of SRU’s Leadership Training Facility and the Aebersold Student Recreation Center, which they can use as students, but also as a learning facility related to their studies.

During SRU’s spring break in March, the students will join a cultural excursion to some of the East Coast’s major cities.

Boliver said because of the success of these first two programs involving international students, work is under way to develop a two plus two program with Nanjing University, whereby students would attend their home university for two years, then transfer to SRU to complete the resort, recreation and hospitality management studies program, thus earning their degree from SRU.

He said the program is also looking to expand to possibly involve students from Sri Lanka, Turkey and Vietnam.